The Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee on Friday pointed fingers at the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the sudden doubt that has engulfed the India-England series with less than a week left for the start of the first Test at Rajkot. The latest complaint against the BCCI is that board president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke have not filed their affidavits regarding the implementation of the reforms recommended by the committee.
A source close to the committee stated that Thakur had failed to submit a report on how BCCI would carry out the changes suggested by the Supreme Court, "Both Thakur and Shirke haven't followed the Supreme Court order and haven't filed the compliance report. Thakur was also supposed to furnish undertaking equivocally to the committee on how he would be implementing the reforms. That has also not been done. The England tour has been put in jeopardy by [Anurag] Thakur and [Ajay] Shirke," the source was quoted as saying in a Times of India report.
Shirke recently wrote a letter to his counterpart in the England and Wales Cricket board, Phil Neale to bear their own expenses on the tour because of the lack of a Memorandum of Understanding. Again, the source blamed Thakur and Shirke, "Lodha Panel is still waiting for the affidavits from Thakur and Shirke and they would be blamed if something goes wrong with the series," the source added.
The problems that have cropped up pertaining to payments by the Indian board were addressed by the committee in a letter, stating that "no directions can be given" unless the BCCI discloses details, adding that the bilateral policy decisions does not come under the purview of the committee, "The proposed MoU between BCCI and ECB concerns bilateral policy, the formulation of which is not a part of the mandate of the Lodha committee. As far as payments are concerned, if they are to be made directly by the BCCI, no directions can be given by this committee until relevant details are furnished by the BCCI," Lodha Committee panel secretary Gopal Shankaranarayan had written in an email to the BCCI top brass.
Shankaranarayan also emphasised on the BCCI to adhere to the Supreme Court's orders as to avoid future interruption in cricketing schedules. "To avoid any hindrance to the cricketing calendar and to ensure the continued enjoyment of the sport by its aficionados, the BCCI would be well advised to comply with the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in its orders dated 18 July 2016, 7 October 2016 and 21 October 2016."
"You may also note that this committee is not a full-time committee, nor does it have a secretariat. The members are situated in different cities and the committee meets as and when necessary," Shankaranarayan said.